1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to industrial automation system and, more particularly, to a method and modular industrial automation device which can be configured with little effort and which enables routing between a plurality of subnets to which the automation device is connected.
2. Description of the Related Art
Industrial automation systems are used to monitor, control and regulate technical processes, particularly in the field of manufacturing, process and building automation, and enable operation of control devices, sensors, machines and industrial installations which is intended to be performed as independently as possible and independently of human interventions. In this case, it is particularly important to provide monitoring, control and regulation functions in real time.
Interference in communication connections between automation devices or computer units of an industrial automation system may result in disadvantageous repetition of a transmission of a service requirement. In particular, messages that have not been transmitted or have not been completely transmitted may prevent an industrial automation system from changing to or remaining in a safe operating state and may result in failure of an industrial installation. A costly production standstill is usually associated with failure of a production installation. In industrial automation systems, a particular problem results from message traffic having a comparatively large number of, but relatively short, messages to be transmitted in real time. This intensifies the above problems.
European patent application EP15185045.0 discloses a modular control device of an industrial automation system, which comprises a central unit and at least one communication module each with an integrated router. In order to configure this modular control device, router configuration units of first routers detect available router functions and associated priority values of other routers. First routers have an extended router function for connection to a superordinate communication network. Second routers comprise a restricted router function for connection to a subordinate field level subnet. If there are further first routers, the router configuration units of the first routers each use the priority values to check which first router the highest priority value is assigned to. The first router with the highest priority value is configured as the superordinate router for connection to a superordinate communication network.
EP2913727A1 discloses a modular industrial automation device having a backplane bus system and a plurality of functional modules connected to the backplane bus system. The functional modules each comprise a communication network adapter, a protocol functional unit for implementing a communication protocol stack and a MAC bridge element linked to the communication network adapter. Provision is also made of a router module which is connected to the backplane bus system and comprises a communication network adapter, a router functional unit that is linked to the communication network adapter and is intended to implement a router communication protocol stack, and a respective virtual communication network adapter for each functional module. Such a virtual communication network adapter links the router functional unit to the MAC bridge element of the respective functional module via the backplane bus system. Only the communication protocol stack of the router module comprises routing functions. The messages are forwarded based on the destination MAC address.
EP2988465A1 relates to a method for transmitting an IP data packet from a first automation module of a modular controller to a second automation module of the modular controller via a backplane bus of the modular controller. In this case, the IP data packet comprises a header region and a data region. A transport data packet is created from an IP data packet available in the first automation module. The transport data packet comprises a selection of the data from the header region of the IP data packet and the data region of the IP data packet. The transport data packet is transmitted to the second automation module via the backplane bus. The IP data packet is then reconstructed from the transport data packet.
US 2004/0114591 A1 describes a programmable logic controller that comprises a backplane bus system and modules that are connected to the backplane bus system and communicate via the backplane bus system using the Internet communication protocol (IP). Here, each module has its own IP address.